Dubai World Cup 2008

Here's some photos! There really was a race...

Oregon phone number...

It may not look pretty and it certainly wasn't free, but I have an Oregon phone number! Today is a good day.

Home sweet home?

Is it possible to have two places feel like home, I use the word so interchangably (is that even a word?) that I'm confused which place I'm talking about. The $800 worth of random merchandise was more like $2000 of who knows what. I did manage, with the help of my mom, to get everything into my suitcases. My e-gate pass is my new most prized possession and I'm currently wondering about when "business casual" became a linen sundress and sparkly shoes. I'm guessing right around the time it became an option to live in a place that the sun heats up jewelry enough to scorch your skin and my sunglasses fog up when I walk out the door. Welcome home. I was wearing a pair of cords, long sleeve t-shirt and a vest when I got off the plane; I was standing in the taxi line at 12:30 in the morning wondering how inappropriate it would be to just rip off all my clothes, I figured it would be a bad idea. I got home, unpacked a few things, got mildly annoyed as I waited for the water to get hot so I could take a shower, who knew one of the best parts of being home would be an instant hot shower and a soft towel. Staying at my sister's was like being at a fancy 5 star hotel, only meals (including NW wine) and entertainment were included. I honestly can't even explain how great it was to see my family, the beautiful NW and drink good wine!

I spent the morning after I got back unpacking, cleaning up my apartment, grocery shopping and searching for a "crazy hat" for the World Cup Horse Race that afternoon. I did manage to eat breakfast at the Lime Tree Cafe. World Cup was, as most things are in Dubai, quite an experience and initially completely unorganized chaos. We threw on dresses, crazy hats/feather clips/even a bird... and met up in Jesse's room for Dubizzle Fizzle's. Hopefully someone will share their photos with me so I can post them. We watched some of the races, but the real excitement was all the people and the clothes; it was amazing people watching. At one point we were standing in line for food when an announcement was made that it was "buy one get one free" for bottles of wine. Of course we dropped everything and headed that direction. Eventually we did grab some dinner to go with our third bottle of wine and finished up in time to get a front row spot to watch the final 6 million dollar race... an American won... go team USA.

Now, I'm settling back into work (can you tell...) and regular life for the next 13 weeks. Well actually, let me put it this way, I'll be home 12 weeks from Thursday.

Packing...

So, I purchased over $800 worth of random products that I think I can only find in the US. I'm sure it's not true, but their are some things I have a hard time justifying purchasing in Dubai based on the "rip off" factor. For instance, magazines are right around a zillion dollars, well closer to $15 - $20, which I find ridiculous, so now I'm carting home a bunch of new ones along with all toiletries that I will be needing over the next year, probably longer! I was actually standing on the scale and lifting on my bags trying to make sure I don't go over the weight limit. I'm having a hard time going to sleep even though it's late, because I just keep thinking that when I wake up tomorrow I am going to have to say that I'm leaving tomorrow... 

Loving the NW...

My nephew couldn't be cuter, the weather couldn't be better and I couldn't be happier. I am happy in Dubai, happy in HR, happy in PDX and happy at my sister's. Seven days is not nearly long enough, I've met three new babies, seen lots of good friends and family and fortunately I still have my car to drive all over the place. I'm loving drinking an excess of Pacific NW wine, eating lettuce that is not wilted and spending as much time as possible with my niece and nephews.

Bills in Dubai...

I know I have spent a lot of time saying that things are different in Dubai, but I thought you might like to see an example. Here in Dubai we get bills months after the due date, have to have a letter of no objection from our school (or company if you don't work for the schools) in order to pay your bills on line, pay the internet bill in person at Virgin Records and the gas bill is the best one of all. Last week I came home to a bill sitting right outside my door for gas for the last 5 months. It says on the bill "December Invoice was printed late, the new due date for payment is February 29th, 2008." The best part was I got the bill on March 11. Anyways, Jesse and I went to the mall to pay both our internet bill and also our gas bill. The mall you ask? Well, of course you go to the Dubai Islamic Bank, enter in their account number, put the correct change in bills in the little slidy section of the ATM, then they print out a receipt and fax it all in. Seriously? Is that the best they can come up with? No other time in my life have I found bill paying an optional thing. Before we did that, we tried to go pay our internet bill only to see a hand written sign that says Closed, system down. Only in Dubai...

80 hours and counting!

I am just dying to get home! We were sitting around the campfire this weekend and I was momentarily jealous, or envious, or some non-negative word that means the same thing, of all the different places people were going over Spring Break. One couple is heading to Ethiopia, another to Sri Lanka, a few other friends are heading to India (I want to want to go there, but I have no desire), Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Syria and I can't even remember where else, but it was just amazing to think about all the different places people are traveling to.

I just got off work and decided to pack. I checked the weather and am not sure how I am going to survive; I've not worn much more than a skirt or dress with a light cardigan and sandals for the last seven months... now I checked the forecast and it's rain and even the possibility of snow! I'm sure I'll survive.

I was trying to sort out with my sister how I would find her at the airport. I bought this tri band phone here because then I could use it in the states, but of course it broke this week. Fortunately it's under warranty so I went to Carrerfour to exchange it and they don't do that, they give you a loaner phone and send it away. They say it will be back in a few weeks, which in Dubai time means never. The loaner phone is a joke, it's this plasticy phone and has tons of numbers programed into it. I'm convinced I have somebody else's phone and they thing it has been sent away to be repaired and somebody different has mine. I will be very surprised if I ever see my phone again... only in Dubai.

I cannot wait to meet my nephew!

Range Rover, the Honda Civic of Dubai

A couple weekends ago we were sitting outside at an "authentic" and I use that word lightly, Italian place eating pizza (Turkey Bacon, Pineapple and Corn, the Muslim version of Hawaiian Pizza) we just started watching the cars drive by on Beach Road. We had spent the day at the beach discussing 101 reasons why to, or not to, date a fellow teacher. I was very solid in my stance that it was a terrible idea. A friend of mine was listing off the successful couples and how it would be great, then went on to explain how you could just keep it a secret. Right, since we work and live together, I'm sure that secret would last. Then he remembered a certain couple that just broke up and summed it up by saying, okay, you're right, bad idea.

But, I digress.

Along with that conversation, we were talking about the types of cars people drive here. Range Rovers are everywhere, Maserati's are common, Lamborghini's, nothing special, it is unreal. The amount of wealth is something I may never get used to, nor do I think it's something I'd like to get used to. We have kids that live on Palm Jumeirah in homes that are worth 20+ million US dollars and then stay at the Burj al Arab during the week so they don't have to deal with the commute. To put it into perspective, one night in a suite at the Burj is more than I make in an entire month, and as a teacher, that's a lot... but really, is that necessary? It's like we live in this little bubble outside of reality. I think I spend half my time just shaking my head and wondering if this is really happening to me. I just started tutoring more and now make about a third of my monthly salary by tutoring 3 hours a week. Unbelievable.

Only in Dubai and.... at home it wouldn't happen like that...

I just went out to dinner with some friends and two other girls that are here visiting. They noticed that just about every 7th word out of one of our mouths was something along the lines of, right, only in Dubai. Or, at home I would never say this but... It really is some type of warped reality.

I think I've missed a few weeks of writing because I've been trying to download pictures, but for whatever reason, it's not working. We went golfing the other day on this little chip and putt course, it was really fun. I'm trying to sort out lessons for April. I also went to a one year old birthday party, it was basically a great BBQ for adults, a few kids wandering around and then the birthday part was when the little boy blew out the candles on these super delicious cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I'd say that's a perfect first birthday party! It was also two other friends birthdays, one girl turned 30 and had a house party that was part Hawaiian and part Superhero theme. Basically it was just a bunch of us hanging out. I somehow managed to stay up until 5:15 in the morning, which is when I was supposed to be leaving for the last half marathon of the season, needless to say, I didn't make it. The other party was at this great place, I think I've mentioned it before, The Rooftop Bar, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed back there. They overcharged us and I'm sure some people left without paying, but I was the one stuck trying to figure out the bill, it was pretty disastrous, in fact, I'm not even going to say any more than that.

I think I mentioned that I joined a soccer team. We had a tournament and lost in the semi finals by a shoot out, which is annoying; I would have rather just been allowed to play a few more minutes. Our team went out to Barasti afterwards and then a bunch of us went to watch a David Grey concert. It was such a perfect day! We also had our first couple games, we tied both. Tying is annoying. Both games we "should" have won but didn't, especially the first one. We practice once a week and then games on Wednesdays. It seems like it would only keep me busy those nights, but somehow it ended up totally changing my routine, I'm up way later now and drag myself out of bed to get to work on time. I love my team though, it's a great group and practice and games are really fun. We even have coaches, which continues to make me laugh. I haven't been yelled at by a coach on the sidelines in 15 years!

Somewhere in there we went to Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship. It was amazing! The court is in the middle of Irish Village and Century Village, so it's basically surrounded by restaurants and bars. Jess, Jesse and I sat out at the Irish Village listening to music and having a drink, went in and got front row seats to the men's double finals, watched that while drinking glasses of wine or beer and then had perfect seats for Roddick vs Lopez (from Spain) for the men's finals. It could not have been any better! We had amazing seats to yet one more sporting event.

This weekend we went camping in Oman, it was great to be outside! A group of us met at the school on Friday morning and caravaned out to the camping spot. It was pretty hot, but we still managed to get in some great hiking, it was very different from any hiking or camping I've done before. Instead of trees, lakes and fishing it was rocks, sand and sand angels. It was definitely a good time, although my legs look like I ran through thorn bushes and then smashed rocks on them for fun. I have no idea why I bruise so easily. Speaking of, the little stick in the leg incident that happened last summer, I thought it would get better, it basically looks like I dug out a little section of my leg. It's awful.

On to bigger and better, I officially resigned from my job at Wy'east and I'll be home in less than 100 hours. Happy days!